Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Staples to Offer 3D Printing Services in Copy Centers
November 30th, 2012Via: Fabbaloo: In a blockbuster announcement, Mcor, the makers of the IRIS color 3D printing system based on plain old paper, say they’ve struck a huge deal with print services giant Staples to supply 3D printing equipment for their numerous print and copy centers. This will obviously take a while to implement, so Staples Printing […]
Sentry System Combines a Human Brain with Computer Vision
November 30th, 2012I’ve posted this one at least a couple of time over the years, but in case you missed it… Via: MIT Technology Review: Sentry duty is a tough assignment. Most of the time there’s nothing to see, and when a threat does pop up, it can be hard to spot. In some military studies, humans […]
Syria: Internet Taken Down
November 30th, 2012My guess is that U.S. Special Forces are restoring “Internet” access right now. *wink* Well, what this probably means is that, when you’re connected to .mil’s PSYOP ISP, you may get a ‘special’ version of the Internet. For example, when you type in cnn.com or google.com, what you see may be quite different from what […]
‘The Cashless Society is Almost Here’
November 30th, 2012I first heard about the cashless society back around 1988. By 2000, cash would be gone, or so the stories went. haha. Now, in 2012, the cashless society is almost here… I’d say that it’s closer to being here than it was in 1988, but I wouldn’t be surprised if people who are waiting for […]
Stone Builders, Mound Builders and the Giants of Ancient America
November 28th, 2012Via: Youtube / Jim Vieira at TEDxShelburneFalls:
What Will NASA Do with Donated NRO Telescopes?
November 28th, 2012Via: Discovery: NASA has begun surveying scientists on what they would like to do with two Hubble-class space telescopes donated to the civilian space agency by its secretive sibling, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) — which operates the nation’s spy satellites. But the gifts have some formidable strings attached, including costs to develop instruments and […]
TrueTime API: How Google’s Servers Know What Time It Is
November 26th, 2012Via: Wired: But with Spanner, Google discarded the NTP in favor of its own timing-keeping mechanism. It’s called the TrueTime API. “We wanted something that we were confident in,” Fikes says. “It’s a time reference that’s owned by Google.” Rather than rely on outside clocks, Google equips its Spannerized data centers with its own atomic […]
Cambridge University Center Will Study Technologies that Pose ‘Extinction-Level’ Risks to Humanity
November 26th, 2012Flashback 2000: Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us Via: Cambridge University: A philosopher, a scientist and a software engineer have come together to propose a new centre at Cambridge to address developments in human technologies that might pose “extinction-level” risks to our species, from biotechnology to artificial intelligence. … While few would deny the benefits […]
Palm-Scanning Technology ‘as a Handy ID System’
November 26th, 2012Via: USA Today: At schools in Pinellas County, Fla., students aren’t paying for lunch with cash or a card, but with a wave of their hand over a palm scanner. “It’s so quick that a child could be standing in line, call mom and say, ‘I forgot my lunch money today.’ She’s by her computer, […]
A Dangerous Future of Killer Robots
November 26th, 2012Via: Washington Post: The use of drones to kill suspected terrorists is controversial, but so long as a human being decides whether to fire the missile, it is not a radical shift in how humanity wages war. Since the first archer fired the first arrow, warriors have been inventing ways to strike their enemies while […]
